


All Doors Lead to Home

by crumblingwalls



Category: Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-20
Updated: 2010-12-20
Packaged: 2017-10-13 20:00:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/141214
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crumblingwalls/pseuds/crumblingwalls
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was the first, though not the last, time that she opened a door for the rats.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All Doors Lead to Home

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Elennare](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elennare/gifts).



> Warnings for canon-compliant mentions of rape and character death.

"A door? From where?" The child Door squinted at the rat. It was only the third time she'd been permitted out on her own, and while she had been told the rats were trustworthy, she was not yet sure how much she wanted to trust them.

The rat chittered at her for several moments, and Door nodded. The rats would owe her a favour, and she knew already that this was a powerful thing, one that she might someday need. Her father would approve--if they were to unite Below, they would need many favours. She followed the Rat-Speaker, and, once they were safely away from the main tunnels, she did as he requested.

The wall wanted to open, and she listened to it for a moment, sorting out what she needed to find in herself, and then the door swung open.

It wasn't much of a door, really, only slightly larger than Door herself, but it was big enough for the rats, which was all that mattered. The rats darted across the threshold and ran to a slight figure lying on the ground.

One of the rats returned.

“Your assistance would be appreciated,” he said solemnly.

Door looked around suspiciously. She’d been Above, though not frequently and never alone. Setting her shoulders, she stepped through the portal that she’d opened and followed the rat to the girl on the ground.

The rats looked at her expectantly. “What shall I do?” she asked. Then, on their orders, she shoved gently at the girl’s shoulder. The girl had looked nearly dead, but blinked, looking confused.

“Come on,” Door said awkwardly. “You need to wake up and come with me.”

With one arm draped around Door’s shoulders, the girl struggled to her feet. She smelt awful, like the Sewer Folk Door had seen at the Market, and Door couldn’t help but feel bad for her. She didn’t ask questions, though. No good could come of interfering in the affairs of the rats. If they were to unite, they needed to trust each other.

Half-dragging the girl and trembling with effort, Door followed the rats back through the wall, closing the door behind her.

It was the first, though not the last, time that she opened a door for the rats.

***

 _He's coming towards her, yelling, swinging his meaty fists wildly. One catches her on the side of her face and she staggers, off balance. He shoves her, for not the first time, back onto her bed. This time, though, she's ready, and when he looms over her, she closes her eyes and places her hands on either side of his head, and she pushes, enough that she can feel something inside him crack. His movements slow, and the yelling begins to blur together._

 _She pushes a little further, just to see, and she can feel his mind break under the strain, and then there's just his heavy, motionless weight on top of her. It's something of a trick to get out from under him, but she manages, and then she looks around the room wondering what to do next._

 _A rat is sitting atop her dresser, peering at her with its bright beady eyes. "Well, rat," she says, crossing the room to it, "what do you think I should do?" She strokes its sleek brown head with her index finger. There are more rats than people around here, and she's almost started to think of them as friends. The rats are also significantly nicer than many of the people around here._

 _"You should go," says the rat, and she stops petting it and stares in shock. The rat stares back at her for a moment, then repeats itself. "You should go. She'll be home soon, and I would think this place will soon become very unpleasant indeed."_

 _Anaesthesia closes her eyes and counts to ten in her head, and when she looks around again, the rat is gone._ That was weird _, she thinks, and then decides that the rat was probably right. She should go._

 _With her, she takes a small stuffed bear, two pairs of socks, a woollen jumper, and all the money she can find._

She'd said that the rats had found her, which was half true. They had, in fact, been watching her since she'd left her aunt's house. Not because they distrusted her, but because they were waiting to see what she would become. In this they were somewhat disappointed, for her powers were never again as strong or as well-wielded as they were the night that she left her aunt's house. Indeed, her memories of that night were so muddled that she was never sure of the extent of her own abilities. Had she killed him? Put him under? Had he merely suffered a particularly coincidentally timed heart attack?

She usually settled somewhere around the middle option, which was not entirely correct. Though she hadn't killed the man, she had pushed him into a coma, where he spent the remaining twenty-some years of his life, which, as it happened, was significantly more time than Anaesthesia was granted. The rats found this rather unfair.

***

They did what they could--never let it be said that the rats did not look after their own. Miss Whiskers had been truthful--sometimes, the tributes came back. Not frequently, but it had happened. Twice. Twice was enough for the rats to realize that coming back wasn't necessarily something that they should be hoping for.

With that in mind, they contacted Door, again, and asked her to open for them.

It took some discussion--promises of political compromises were made--but her assistance was secured. The door in question would be opened.

***

It was, as Anaesthesia had heard, very dark and very cold. It took her a while to get off the floor--the shock of the fall often had that effect on people. Eventually she sat up, and then she sat in the dark wondering what on earth happened now. She chittered, hoping that a rat was nearby, but after several attempts and no response she gave up and went back to just sitting.

When she tired of the dark, tired of sitting, she started walking, but after what felt like days of it, she was no less cold than she had been, and her surroundings certainly didn't seem any less dark than they had when she'd started. So she stopped walking and lay down on the rocky floor of the pit, pillowing her head on her arms and doing her best not to let her teeth chatter.

She slept. Upon waking, she found her circumstances to be exactly as they had been before she slept.

Some time passed, though Anaesthesia didn't know how much. She'd stopped shivering, though her bones ached from the cold.

Something nearby twisted oddly and made an odd _squlsh_ sound, like someone trying unsuccessfully to pull their feet out of very wet mud.

"Hello?" said a woman's voice. "Damn, maybe I--"

"I'm here," said Anaesthesia, her voice dull and cracking.

A pale light flickered as Door lit the lantern. It illuminated very little, but it was enough.

"Oh," Door said. "You look--I'm going to help, okay?"

Anaesthesia nodded gratefully.

"Stand up," said Door. "You're going to have to walk through on your own. I can get you to it, but that's all--I can't take you through."

Slowly, Anaesthesia climbed to her feet.

"It'll be bright," Door warned, and then she reached inside of herself and pulled, hard. A door opened, flooding the area with light, and Door blinked, surprised. She hadn't expected it to be that easy, not after all that she'd gone through opening a distant door for Islington. Anaesthesia wasn't moving.

"It's okay," Door said. "It's safe. It'll be nice. You'll be warm."

Anaesthesia took several steps toward the door. "I can't come through again, can I?" she said.

She knew it wasn't really a question, but Door shook her head anyhow. "No. You can't go back now anyhow, though."

"I didn't think so," Anaesthesia said. "Well, thank you."

Door nodded. "Good luck," she said. The light got brighter as Anaesthesia approached the door, and Door squinted against it, watching as the shadowy form of the rat-girl disappeared.

"Goodbye," Door said as she closed Anaesthesia's door.

For a moment, she stared at the place the door had been. Then she snuffed her lantern and opened the door that would take her home.


End file.
